Report on the Fungal Collections made in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park: 1999

Joseph W. Spatafora
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology Oregon State University Corvallis, OR
97331-2902.

SUMMARY

From July 20 - 25, 1999, fungal collections were made in the Great Smokey Mountains National
Park as part of the "Butterflies of the Soil" ATBI project. Special emphasis in collecting was
placed on entomopathogenic fungi of the genus Cordyceps and related clavicipitalean taxa
(Clavicipitaceae, Ascomycota). A total of 71 collections of 4 genera and 11 species were
collected from the Clavicipitaceae. Many of the entomopathogenic fungi of the Clavicipitaceae
are inconspicuous in nature and are rarely collected. The collections described below should
significantly increase our knowledge of these fungi in terms of phenology, ecology, taxonomy and
phylogenetics. An additional 23 collections of other fungi representing 12 genera and 18 species
were collected to further the overall taxonomic coverage of the ATBI project.